Johnny Ray Jones - Mystic Chiefs (2024)

Mystic Chiefs, the third album by Southern California blues shouter Johnny Ray Jones, is a hard-hitting 11-track collection that pays homage to generations of the region’s best blues and roots bands — including Canned Heat, the James Harman Band, the Blasters, the Red Devils, and the Blue Shadows — and introduces a powerhouse new band featuring some of the genre’s most skilled and exciting players.

Five of the album’s 11 tracks are drawn from the club repertoire of the Red Devils, the rocking ‘90s band fronted by singer-harp player Lester Butler; the group cut a celebrated live album, King King, recorded at the titular L.A. club where they held down “Blue Mondays,” and recorded an unreleased album backing Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones. Jones — like guitarist Watson, who played with the Blue Shadows, an early incarnation of the Devils — was himself a part of the Devils’ legendary legacy.

Recorded, like its predecessors, at Johnny Lee Schell’s Ultratone Studios in Studio City, California, the new recording features some well-traveled and highly skilled SoCal players. Lead guitarist Junior Watson co-founded the Mighty Flyers and was featured in Canned Heat and late harp ace William Clarke’s band. U.K.-born Carl Sonny Leyland has performed regularly with Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys and has cut his own solo records. Harp player Tex Nakamura succeeded Lee Oskar in the hit-making L.A. unit War. Bassist John Bazz was a founding member of Downey’s revered Blasters. Percussionist Stephen Hodges is renowned for his drumming and percussion work with Tom Waits, Mavis Staples, and the late James Harman. J.R. Lozano recorded with his father’s storied East L.A. group Los Lobos’ Grammy-winning album Native Sons. And rhythm guitarist Schell’s many credits include work with Bonnie Raitt (including her multi-platinum 1989 commercial breakthrough Nick of Time), Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Etta James, and Ronnie Wood.

Mystic Chiefs thus represents the latest stop on a blues continuum — from the work of ‘60s Chicago-bred musicians like Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Elvin Bishop, Charlie Musselwhite, and Barry Goldberg, who learned at the feet of the Windy City masters, through dedicated Southern California players like James Harman, the Blasters, the Red Devils, and Johnny Ray Jones himself, who learned their own craft from the elders and carried the music into the 21st century.